MAY
14 A special team of Drug Enforcement Administration
agents from Dallas helped arrest more than 30 methamphetamine trafficking
suspects in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Wednesday, May 5, 2004.

The
early-morning roundup stems from a six-month investigation in which
the DEA team, assisted by state and federal authorities from Oklahoma
and Arkansas, worked
undercover to arrest major drug distributors.

“This is another example of how the public and their communities benefit
from the combined resources of the combined resources of area law enforcement,” said
Gary Olenkiewicz, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s Dallas division. “The
citizens are able to see tangible results that make their communities safer.”

More
than 100 law enforcement officers, beginning at 4a.m., conducted simultaneous
raids to serve federal arrest warrants on people suspected of trafficking methamphetamine.

The
investigation dubbed “Hot B” by the officers and agents, started
when Pocola, Oklahoma, police began suspecting that major methamphetamine distributors
were using Choctaw Gaming Center in eastern Oklahoma as a base of operations.

“These drug traffickers were using the Indian tribal land as a method of
escaping state law enforcement,” LeFlore County District Attorney Rob Wallace
said in a prepared statement. “Federal authorities’ help was needed
to provide jurisdiction to investigate the drug ring,” Mr. Wallace said.

The
DEA’s Dallas division, which covers northern and eastern Texas and
all of Oklahoma, deployed a Mobile Enforcement Team in November 2003 to help
other federal agencies, including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives, investigate the case.

For
this operation, the DEA agents bought record amounts of methamphetamine,
Mr. Wallace said. The investigation also led to drug arrests in Fort Coffee,
Okla., and Fort Smith, Arkansas. The case will be tried in state and federal
courts in Arkansas and Oklahoma.